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I'd been no-so hinting for a few months that I was wanting a new charcoal grill. It didn't help that the ignition for my gas-burner (I don't even want to hear it. If it's good enough for Hank Hill, it's good enough for me) had gone out, and I lost more and more arm hair each time I fired it up.
Well, I ordered a replacement ignition, finally, and I was apparently a good boy this year (or just a good cook and D likes what I serve up), because I got a new Weber 22" charcoal grill for Christmas. This joins my Weber Gensis, Weber Smokey Mountain, and Lang 36" Backyard Smoker.
We used to have a "Christmas Steaks" tradition but between moving one year between Thanksgiving and Christmas, and Covid, traditions got all messed up and we'd gotten out of the habit of it.
I knew that I wanted to bring that one back, because ... steaks! So when we went to Lowes Foods, I was left unsupervised to pick out our steaks.
They were cut thick, and I may have also decided on the largest ones I could find. In my defense, I went into with the game-plan that we'd get a lot of leftovers and be able to make quesadillas with them.
When I say they were thick, they both were about as thick as a fork is deep.
I know the chimney starter is usually the go-to for charcoal, but I have this electric starter that I've used to start my smoker for years, so I went with it.
Hindsight, I'll probably do a combination going forward. I'll probably use this to get the coals going in a chimney as it'll start the fire quicker, but will also get more coals going faster than this does as it spreads out.
Either way, the first first was lit ...
The steaks went on at 5:24, and with as thick as they were, they went as far away from the heat as possible.
I was going for a partial reverse sear/smoke for them. Again, these are some of the thickest steaks I've ever done, and usually with those, I smoked them up to temp before a hard sear. These, I was just learning the grill with.
After nearly an hour slowly coming up, it was sear time!
Again, learners curve, the heat wasn't all the way up to where I like it for a good sear. I was trying to keep it controlled some and didn't have it cranking.
Either way, both steaks still got some color and a little char in areas.
While I was outside freezing my butt off, but loving every second of it. D was inside making the greatest twice baked potatoes on the planet.
It was a little bit of an uneven cook, but over-all the internal temp was pretty nailed.
I don't know if I'm just the world's worst cutter with my knife, but the serrations on our knives made mine not look at pretty as D's, but the temp is still dead on.
Overall, I've really excited to cook more and more on this grill.
I know the debate is always charcoal or gas. After this first cook, I didn't notice a huge difference. I do want to replace the grates for better grill marks (that's a trademark of mine), but flavor-wise, I didn't say, "holy cow that is absolutely different and way better." Again, this is just the first cook, so we'll see if that changes.
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